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The Pickaway County sheriff’s office and the county’s school superintendents are developing a
common playbook for responding to classroom emergencies.

A team of deputies and others has evaluated the security of each school building in the county
and made recommendations. Sheriff Robert Radcliff and school officials will meet on Feb. 14 to
continue discussions.

“It’s terrible. But you have to worry about these things,” Radcliff said in a reference to the
school-shooting deaths in Newtown, Conn.

Radcliff wants deputies to deal with the same emergency-response plan regardless of the school
district — Circleville, Logan Elm, Teays Valley or Westfall — to which they are responding.

Private schools and Ohio Christian University near Circleville also are part of the evolving
plan.

“We want to see consistency in terms of our response. Our officers shouldn’t have to be thinking
about which protocol to use” when responding to emergencies, the sheriff said.

Some districts also are moving on their own to improve school security. The Westfall school
board last week approved hiring a part-time deputy to stand watch over the district’s three-school,
1,650-student campus near Williamsport.

“We’ll have someone on-site if we have an incident,” said Superintendent Cara Riddel, who noted
that her schools are about 15 minutes away from the sheriff’s office in Circleville should an
emergency arise.

Asked whether the hiring of the county’s first school resource officer was prompted by the
Newtown massacre, Riddel replied: “It certainly got the board’s attention.”

The district will spend up to $10,000 to have the officer on campus 25 to 30 hours a week
through the end of the school year, she said.